Education-Outreach highlights.

For AGU 2018, we've assembled a two-page document with examples of CZO education-outreach activities.

• E/O handout - low resolution for web (1 MB PDF)
• E/O handout - high resolution for print (14 MB PDF)

On this page

• We all depend on the Critical Zone
• Share awareness of the Critical Zone
• Explore educational resources
• See how we help train Critical Zone scientists
• CZO email newsletter

We all depend on the Critical Zone

Earth’s vital outer skin

It extends from tops of trees to bottom of groundwater

• Where rock, soil, water, air, and living organisms interact.
• Its processes operate on second-to-eon timescales.
• It sustains all terrestrial life; our lives depend on it.

But it’s poorly understood

Fundamental questions

• How does the Critical Zone form?  
• How does it function?
• How will it change over time?

NSF CZO 
Program

• Serves the scientific community through research, infrastructure, data, & models.
• Promotes interdisciplinary science, incl.
hydrology, geochemistry, biology, & more.

Share awareness of the Critical Zone

The Earth Scientist

Special CZO Issue, Fall 2016

• National Earth Science Teachers Association.
• 600 NESTA subscribers.
• Copies available upon request.
• 8 main articles written or co-written by CZO personnel.
• Access past issues (NESTA members only)
• Read special CZO Issue (PDF)

Educator workshops

We offer professional development programming

• CZ science and related topics.
• Grade school to grad school.
• Informal education too.
• Hour-long workshops to 
semester-long courses.
• Contact Don Haas

Blog

“Adventures in the 
Critical Zone”

• General audience.
• Wide range of topics
• 1000+ pageviews/mo.
• See the blog

Observatory comics

A comic about each of 
the 9 CZOs

• 10-12 panels per comic.
• K-12 and general audience.
• Original artwork and text.
• Boulder | Calhoun | Catalina-Jemez | Eel | IML | Luquillo | Reynolds | Shale Hills | Southern Sierra

PBS/WSKG videos

CZO is partnering with WSKG on short videos

• Will appear on PBS LearningMedia website.
• Focus on rainfall, runoff, 
evapotranspiration, and
 the carbon cycle.
• "Explore the Critical Zone” 
video is complete
• Watch the video (6.5 min)

Explore educational resources

Single location for CZO educational activities

See a collection of educational activities produced by the CZO Network.

• Peer-reviewed, with standardized grade-levels, categories, and descriptions.
• Currently 15 resources but will be expanding to 10’s more in 2019.
• Visit the collection

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

Many CZO educational resources are aligned to the NGSS.

The interdisciplinary nature of CZO science and its relevance to every terrestrial environment makes it well-suited to satisfying the new science standards.  The new standards value inclusion of locally relevant environmental content, and give far more attention to complex systems and climate change than prior standards.

See how we help train Critical Zone scientists

Undergrad course: Critical Zone Science 

Teaching materials for a 15-week, upper-level undergraduate course. Developed by 7 CZO investigators and collaborators.
 Hosted by InTeGrate (Science Educ. Resource Center).

• 7 main modules,  4-5 class sessions each.
• Integrates grand challenges facing society.
• Builds interdisciplinary and systems thinking.
• Uses real-world data sets & data visualization techniques.
• Students will understand the interplay of rock, water, air, soil, & life and the profound importance of these issues.
• Browse the course

CZO Virtual Institute

A project focused on cross-CZO, common measurements, and collaboration

• Annual summer Interns program.
 Grad students, postgraduates.
• International Scholars program.
 Supporting travel & research.
• Cross-CZO science workshops.
• AGU events, Working groups.
• Funded by NSF’s SAVI project.
• See more about the virtual institute

CZO webinars

Online presentations of CZO science

• Topics range widely: ie CZ services, 
Earth surface processes, CZ science and policy, water scarcity, CZO plans.
• Watch webinsar series on "Critical Zone and Society" (6 talks)  
• Watch CZO cyber seminars hosted by CUAHSI
• Watch webinars hosted by NEON

Virtual Field Experiences (VFE)

Online content for 3 Critical Zone Observatory field sites

• Shale Hills, Southern Sierra, & Luquillo CZOs. 
• Rich visual documentation of each site, augmented by maps and data.
• Compare the Critical Zone (CZ) at these sites to the CZ in their backyards.
• Create your own VFEs with our tools, promote CZ research.
• Read discussion of CZO VFEs at virtualfieldwork.org

In the Trenches

Special issue: “Exploring  the Critical Zone, 
Earth’s Outer Skin”, Oct 2017

• National Assoc. of Geoscience Teachers.
• 5 main articles written by CZO personnel.
• 2000 NAGT subscribers.
• View the issue (NAGT members only)

CZO email newsletter

News, events, research highlights, upcoming meetings, Jobs/Opportunities and more

• Published monthly
• View past issues and sign up